As haunted attractions go, Weatherly Manor is quiet minor. Doesn’t keep Coztumer and I from enjoying it, or working hard on it. Last year was the best year for Weatherly Manor to date.
Coztumer and I built Weatherly Manor from the ground up. We stole, borrowed and even purchased everything in Weatherly Manor over the last three years. The Manor started in the back of my truck and is today a freestanding contraption of daunting size.
Okay, it’s still tiny, but it takes more than a day to set up.
As it exists today, which is to say as it existed for Halloween 2008, it only had two rooms with a relatively simple scare in each room. The front facade is a 15 foot wide 14 foot high “haunted house” that patrons enter through. Once inside, the guests get an introduction to Weatherly Manor, including a visit from a ghost that “attacks” through a drop panel.
From there, they enter a “dot room,” which is one of the simpler special effects that a haunted attraction can build. It seems to be quiet effective if the screams we got last year are any indication.
And that’s pretty much it, but with just two people running it, that’s pretty much all we could handle anyway. This year we intend to add to the effect by automating the scares (and changing the surprise in the dot room) so that the two of us can increase the ambiance by being roving actors to the whole event. Lots will change on the outside of the haunt, things that guest shouldn’t see but will make a huge difference in the way they interact with the Haunt itself.
All the while we are making notes and preparing to pitch the idea as a fundraiser to a local theater group for 2010.
So this is where you can read about our attempts to get Weatherly Manor updated for 2009 and moved to bigger and better digs in 2010. Whatever happens, it should be a humorous story. We’ll just have to wait and see.
